This is “Рабочий и Колхозница” (Labourer and Kolkhoz Woman), it was built for 1937 International Exhibition in Paris.

It was dismantled in 2004 (photos are 3 years old) because of detoriation of internal iron frame and supporting monument. The future of this sculpture is uncertain for now, it is planned to rebuild it with new hull as part of main building of new exhibition complex – with design comparable to one of Paris 1937 exhibition, with sculpture raised to 60 meters from ground. The project scheduled date of completion is 2010.

this is one of the greatest monuments from 20th century regardless of its political background. it looks so grandiose . i know it is totally different time and idea, but somehow it reminds me of old antic greek sculptures.

Soviet scupture all seemed similar– note the similarity to the Motherland (Rodina) statue in Volgograd (which is a much better piece of art, in my opinion). “Neo-classicism” is the idea, trying to harken back to some golden age of scupture, personally I think the other styles of Soviet scupture were more distinctive– the “chiseled” look of some of the World War 2 monuments.

The only problem (albeit a major one) with “far left communism” was that it never lived up to it’s own ideals– remember, communism was supposed to be a democratic movement (it was the communist East Germany who’s name was “DEMOCRATIC Republic of Germany”, for example– if only they had stayed true to their name). On paper communism has much in common with the words of Christ: “it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven” and “I was hungry and ye fed me not. . . that which ye do unto the least of these my bretheren ye do unto me.” Marx was a fool to dismiss religion as an “opiate of the people.”

illich you are quite spot on in your analysis. However, the words of Christ, do not neccesserily have that much to do with the modern Christian churches, which all of course fiercly opposed any worker control of production, believing that countries are best run by those ‘appointed by god’ (kings, emporers, etc…). The later is what Marx was refering to.

[...] This epic monument of Mosfilm (Russian Motion Picture) now apparently lies in ruins. It was a very tall (22 meter) monument. It’s a shame Russians couldn’t protect this heritage of theirs. During my childhood I watched lots of movies produced by Mosfilm. [...]

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: — Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter’d visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp’d on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock’d them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

This is a wonderful piece of art, regardless of the political symbols. As Nietzche said, ‘only strength can join itself to strength’ and this work of art certainly achieves greatness in that respect. It is so sad to see it disassembled. I hope the Russian authorities reassemble it in its former glory. Perhaps someone could tell me the name of the woman sculptress who made it?

This is a wonderful piece of art, regardless of the political symbols. As Nietzche said, ‘only strength can join itself to strength’ and this work of art certainly achieves greatness in that respect. It is so sad to see it disassembled. I hope the Russian authorities reassemble it to its former glory. Perhaps someone could tell me the name of the woman sculptress who made it?

I am amazed at how hard it was for me to find these pictures,
and even when I did the right search, how many pages I had to
wade through to get the right hit. I would appear that power
today wants to eliminate the history of power yesterday, like
Winston Smith in 1984. So, it appears Capitalism is willing,
just like Communism, to erase the past and claim it is always
like it is now, always has been, but always it will be better
and better and better, like pie in the sky. Remember when it
was always being said how booming the US economy was, but the
people on the street were always saying, “Where’s my share?”
I am not a Communist, or Socialist, or Capitalist, or any
of those things, and I don’t know why this little editor
just tore all my nice neat margins all to hell. Oh well.

[...] The monument has been restored and returned to its place at the All-Russia Exhibition Center in Moscow. Images from the monument under reconstruction can ve visited here. All images in this post taken from EnglishRussia [...]

YES!!! It HAS been restored, returned to its rightful place, and shines over those driving into town. Am so glad that wiser minds did not destroy the artwork for political reasons, and is restoring it for history and arts sake.